


mawkish

by Hope



Category: Firefly, Serenity (2005)
Genre: AU, Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-10-27
Updated: 2005-10-27
Packaged: 2017-10-03 10:35:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hope/pseuds/Hope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2005/10/27.html"><b>mawkish</b></a> \MOCK-ish\, <i>adjective:</i><br/>1. Sickly or excessively sentimental.<br/>2. Insipid in taste; nauseous; disgusting.</p><p><i>"If anything happens to her, anything at all, I swear to you, I will get </i>very<i> choked up."</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	mawkish

"I swallowed a bug," River chokes a little as she says it, and Zoe, still thrumming from the chase and its abrupt ending, still hyper-aware of every little movement and sound around her, sees Simon's body surge in a little convulsive jerk, as if he's suppressing relieved laughter. But then Zoe sees the blood covering River's hands and realises just how wrong she is.

The girl coughs a little again, her eyes on her brother's face as his own hands press ineffectually at where the reaver harpoon's lodged part-way through her body, pinning her to the pocked metal seat back, barely blinking until her expression of mild surprise shifts into a vague grimace, and -- "Stop it..." she says, and then, "That's--" a whisper, slick with the trickle of dark red over her lips, and the only reason she doesn't stop moving then is because the Doc's hands are on her face, now, spreading the red around on white skin as they grip and shake, and Serenity's shuddering as they push out through atmo again without that primary buffer panel.

_"Hello?"_ She's vaguely aware of Wash's voice, tinny through the comm, the sound overwhelmed by the sound of Simon's breathing, like he's got something stuck in him too, and then things get real slow-like real quick, and Zoe's paying more attention than Mal (ain't nothing new about that) because he's been distracted by Kaylee's sudden wail and it ain't like the Doc's moving all that fast, but still fast enough that the Capn don't see him and Jayne's staring at the girl's body and gripping at his own leg like he ain't even aware of it, ain't aware of the Doc taking his gun where it's fallen by the wayside, that's for sure.

Simon don't say anything because he don't need to; incongruously Zoe remembers a whole week of Kaylee's pestering him to get into the cussing the rest of them regularly shared, though Zoe privately agreed with his ending statement on that argument, _it don't mean nothing out here in the black_, that shut Kaylee up real quick with the phrasing all odd-sounding coming out of his mouth, and leaving Zoe wondering why he hadn't said it earlier. Time to think all of this, not rushing through her head so much as the old words curling again over her own tongue in her mouth, within the cage of her clenched teeth, and time again to repeat it real slow as the Doc moves toward Mal and time enough for her to raise her own rifle to hip-height and she knows it's fast now, because it's happened before she's even thought about it and she knows that's the only way it can be when she sees the muscles along his knuckles start to convulsively flex and hers respond, an instant sooner. Soon enough.

Everything speeds up again. _"What's going on?"_ Wash's voice, bringing her back and her focus pulls back and reels out, smell of gunpowder and Kaylee's gasping sobs and Mal looking from the still body (rictus-grip on the repeater) at his feet and up to where she's standing. She can see the movement below the skin on his throat as he swallows. _Don't mean nothing out here in the black._

**Author's Note:**

> http://hopeful-fiction.livejournal.com/37487.html


End file.
